UNIT 17 AND 20

ENVIRONMENT LAW
INDIAN FOREST ACT 1927
• The Indian Forest Act,1927 aimed to regulate the movement of
forest produce, and duty leviable forest produce. It also explains the
procedure to be followed for declaring an area as Reserved Forest,
Protected Forest or a Village Forest.
• This act has details of what a forest offence is, what are the acts
prohibited inside a Reserved Forest, and penalties leviable on
violation of the provisions of the Act. After the Forest Act was
enacted in 1865, it was amended twice (1878 and 1927).
• Indian Forest Act of 1927: This Act impacted the life of forest-dependent
communities. The penalties and procedures given in this Act aimed to
extend the state’s control over forests as well as diminishing the status of
people’s rights to forest use. The village communities were alienated from
their age-old symbiotic association with forests. Further amendments
were also made to restrain the local use of forests mainly by forest-
dependent communities. It was enacted to make forest laws more
effective and to improve the previous forest laws.
• Objective
• To consolidate all the previous laws regarding forests.
• To give the Government the power to create different classes of forests
for their effective usage for the colonial purpose.
• To regulate movement and transit of forest produce, and duty leviable on
timber and other forest produce.
• To define the procedure to be followed for declaring an area as Reserved
Forest, Protected Forest or Village Forest.
• Types of Forests
• Reserved Forests: Reserve forests are the most restricted forests and are
constituted by the State Government on any forest land or wasteland
which is the property of the Government.

• In reserved forests, local people are prohibited, unless specifically allowed by a

• This power has been used to establish State control over trees, whose timber, fruit
or other non-wood products have revenue-raising potential.
• Village forest: Village forests are the one in which the State Government
may assign to ‘any village community the rights of Government to or over
any land which has been constituted a reserved forest’.
• Forest Settlement Officer
• The Forest Settlement Office is appointed, by the State government, to inquire into and
determine the existence, nature and extent of any rights alleged to exist in favour of any
person in or over any land comprising a Reserved forest.
• He/she is empowered even to acquire land over which right is claimed.
• Drawbacks
• The government claimed that the act was aimed to protect the vegetation cover
of India. However, a deep investigation of the act reveals that the real motive
behind the act was to earn revenue from the cutting of the trees and from the
forest produce.
• The act gave immense discretion and power to the forest bureaucracy which
often led to the harassment of the forest dwellers.
• Moreover, it led to depriving the nomads and tribal people their age-old rights
and privileges to use the forests and forest produce.
• The revenue earning potential from timber overshadowed the other values like
biodiversity, prevention of soil erosion, etc.
FOREST ACT, 1980
• Need for Forest Conservation Act, 1980
• Forests are an important resource that nature can bestow upon mankind. Therefore, it is the
duty of every citizen to preserve the ecosystems of forests. But due to rapid deforestation, the
cycle of nature is itself being disrupted. Therefore, the need to bring about a law to ensure the
preservation of forest was needed.
• One of the first legal drafts to protect forest tracts was the Indian Forest Act, 1865 replaced by
a 1927 version of the same act. However, it was more geared towards protecting the commercial
interests of the British Empire in India.
• The act gave authority to the British to restrict tribal activities by levying taxes on timber and
forest services. In other words, it mainly regulated the cutting of timber and flow of raw
materials rather than protecting forests.
• Upon independence, the President of India enforced the Forest (Conservation) Ordinance in
1980 which was later repealed by virtue of Section 5 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Under the 1980 Act, the restriction was made on the use of the forests for non-forest purposes.
• Objectives of the Forest Conservation Act 1980
• The aim of the Forest is to preserve the forest ecosystem of India by fulfilling the
following objectives:
1.Protect the forest along with its flora, fauna and other diverse ecological components
while preserving the integrity and territory of the forests.
2.Arrest the loss of forest biodiversity
3.Prevent forest lands being converted into agricultural, grazing or for any other
commercial purposes and intentions.
• Features of the Forest Conservation Act 1980
• The Forest Conservation Act of 1980 come with the following features:
1.The Act restricts the state government and other authorities to take decisions first
without permission from the central government.
2.The Forest Conservation Act gives complete authority to the Central government to
carry out the objectives of the act.
3. The Act levies penalties in case of violations of the provisions of FCA.
4.The Forest Conservation Act will have an advisory committee which will help the
Central government with regard to forest conservation.
• Amendments to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980
• In order to balance economic and ecological concerns regarding the Forest Conservation Act,
1980 several amendments were proposed by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and
Climate Change in March 2021. Some amendments were as follows:
• The proposed new ‘section 1A’ created provision which exempts survey and exploration for
underground oil and natural gas. In other words, such activities will no longer be classified as a
‘non-forest activity’ and will not require permission from the government,
• However, there will be certain conditions laid by the Central Government to carry out such
activities, one of which being, survey and drilling activities will not be carried out within the
proximity of wildlife sanctuaries.
• Land acquired for railway networks will not be applicable to FCA and be exempt. Of course,
certain guidelines will be laid down by the Central government, which will include planting trees
to compensate for the loss of forest lands.
• Section 2 of the FCA requires government approval for leasing forest lands not owned by the
central government for any commercial purposes to private entities.
• This clause has been deleted in the proposed amendment. This will enable state governments to
lease forest lands without the Central government’s approval.
• A new explanation to Section 2 proposes to exempt plantation of native species of palm and oil-
bearing trees from the definition of “non-forest purpose”.
FOREST ACT 2006
• The act recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in Forest land
in forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes (FDST) and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (OTFD)who have been residing in such forests for generations.
• The act also establishes the responsibilities and authority for sustainable
use, conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of ecological balance of
FDST and OTFD.
• It strengthens the conservation regime of the forests while ensuring
livelihood and food security of the FDST and OTFD.
• It seeks to rectify colonial injustice to the FDST and OTFD who are
integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem
• The act identify four types of rights:
• Title rights
• It gives FDST and OTFD the right to ownership to land farmed by tribals or forest
dwellers subject to a maximum of 4 hectares.
• Ownership is only for land that is actually being cultivated by the concerned family and
no new lands will be granted.
• Use rights
• The rights of the dwellers extend to extracting Minor Forest Produce, grazing areas, to
pastoralist routes, etc.
• Relief and development rights
• To rehabilitation in case of illegal eviction or forced displacement and to basic
amenities, subject to restrictions for forest protection
• Forest management rights
• It includes the right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community
forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for
sustainable use.
• Importance
• The acts looks to right the wrongs of government policies in both colonial
and independent India toward forest-dwelling communities, whose claims
over their resources were taken away during 1850s.
• The act also has potential of sustainably protecting forest through
traditional ways along with providing tribes means of livelihood.
• It expands the mandate of the Fifth and the Sixth Schedules of the
Constitution that protect the claims of indigenous communities over
tracts of land or forests they inhabit.
• The alienation of tribes was one of the factors behind the Naxal
movement, which affects states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand.
The act through identifying IFR and CFR tries to provide inclusion to
tribes
 CHALLENGES
• Administrative Apathy
• Implementation of the act remains the biggest challenge as acts related to the environment are not entirely complian
with the law, illegal encroachments have happened as much as that claims have been unfairly rejected.
• As tribals are not a big vote bank in most states, governments find it convenient to subvert FRA or not bother about it a
all in favour of monetary gains.
• Lack of Awareness
• Unawareness at the Lower level of forest officials who are supposed to help process forest rights claims is high and
majority of the aggrieved population too remains in the dark regarding their rights.
• The forest bureaucracy has misinterpreted the FRA as an instrument to regularise encroachment instead of a welfare
measure for tribals.
• Dilution of Act
• Certain sections of environmentalist raise the concern that FRA bend more in the favour of individual rights, giving lesse
scope for community rights.
• Community Rights effectively gives the local people the control over forest resources which remains a significant portion
of forest revenue making states wary of vesting forest rights to Gram Sabha.
• Reluctance of the forest bureaucracy to give up control
• There has been deliberate sabotage by the forest bureaucracy, both at the Centre and the states, and to some extent by
big corporates.
• The forest bureaucracy fears that it will lose the enormous power over land and people that it currently enjoys, while
the corporates fear they may lose the cheap access to valuable natural resources